12296/To Reason With Instinct

To Reason With Instinct
Date of Scene:	06 October 2020
Location:	X-Men Safehouse, Adirondacks Mountains, NY
Synopsis:	With the situation reaching critical mass, Jean prepares to confront the force of nature in her head. But she's not going to be doing it alone.
Cast of Characters:	Phoenix, Wolverine, Cyclops

---

Phoenix has posed:
It's been nearly three weeks to the day since Jean left the school. Three weeks since she and the Professor retreated from the grid to try and calm the force of nature threatening to break loose. Reports were they were unsuccessful, which left out a lot of the darker details like injuries, the safehouse nearly burning down, and a few very localized earthquakes which thankfully were minor enough to not land on the news and draw attention. The few visits that had been paid to the hidden cabin upstate were shut down.

Now word came down through the secure channels that Jean had even barred the Professor himself, resigning him to a small nearby town to try and keep watch on her from afar. She didn't want him there. *Just in case*, was the grim footnote. Just in case. It seemed like Jean intended to tackle this problem alone, and true to her word was working to keep anyone out for fear of accidentally harming them if things went poorly. Charles had no intention on letting her go this alone, but if she wouldn't listen to him then he knew of some she may.

Wolverine has posed:
Since Jean left, Logan hasn't been spending much time around the mansion himself. He's been shacked up in his own cabin not interested in being around the students or the team right now. He's had no intentions of leaving aside from the occasional beer and cigar run into town, but when Charles reached out to him and Scott regarding Jean's condition he had no choice.

Meeting Scott in front of the mansion, they climbed into his Jeep and sped away. The drive wasn't exceptionally long but it was a quiet one. Neither of these men are talkers, much less to one another historically. But in this case they're singular in purpose. The ride to the remote cabin is absent of much small talk beyond the greeting they met with.

As they turn off of a small country road and onto a dirt path into a thick wood, Logan finally speaks, "This ain't good if Chuck is askin' us to come out here." His eyes remain on the road as he speaks and he doesn't expect a reply from the man in the passenger seat. He's not one to voice his concerns but this whole thing has him on edge.

The Jeep pulls up to the front of the cabin and Logan kills the engine. He takes a moment and glances at Scott briefly before he turns and climbs out, his boots landing on the dirt with a heavy thud. He looks up at the cabin for a moment and smells the air. He doesn't know what to expect and doesn't like surprises. Once Scott is out of the Jeep he walks alongside the man to the porch.

Cyclops has posed:
At least Logan and Scott has one thing in comment. Old rock music. The trip was filled with Journey, Speedwagon and Foreigner to fill the lack of conversation. He has been more visible about the mansion, having to take on an extra role in Jean's absence. He's put on a brave, professional face in the hallways, though his night time activities has been filled with extra curriculars in the Danger Room to blow off steam.

As they approach the cabin, he reaches out with his thoughts in search of her. << Logan and I are here. >> He is dressed in a pair of worn jeans and a snug t-shirt beneath a bomber jacket, giving a long stretch of his body to crack a few joints in his spine.

Phoenix has posed:
Much like the situation, the area around the cabin has declined as the weeks wore on. The ground is cracked and dry, like every ounce of moisture had been drawn out of the soil. The surrounding foliage is likewise dry, having gone from the late summer's washed out green to brittle and brown. The solar panel and generator that powered the cabin are a twisted wreck like a giant had smashed down a fist on top of them both.

The cabin itself stands but there's a pervasive smell of wood smoke coming from it. At some point the windows and door were blown out, and inside shows numerous deep scorch marks and furniture turned to rubble and ash. There's no signs of Jean inside but it seems an inhospitable spot to camp. Eerily, near the center where the wood burning stove sits, one of the split logs floats in the air. It bobs lightly, like a feather on top of water, though no sooner would someone get near it then the strange spell is broken and it crashes to the ground as gravity remembers its job.

As smoke and earth are disturbed, there is another scent that rises. It'd be one Scott could easily miss, but not the nose of Logan. Blood. A small amount but fresh and it leads away from the cabin and out into the woods. Scott's psychic query is met with white noise, a humming in the ears and a pressure that increases when he'd look in the same direction the trail leads. It's like something was pushing back against him and warding him off.

Wolverine has posed:
Upon entering the cabin, the overwhelming scent of smoke assaults the Wolverine. His eyes narrow and his nostrils flare as he peers around the worn-out interior. Noticing the floating split log, he emits an instinctual grunt from the depth of his throat and approaches it. When gravity resumes its pull and jerks it to the floor, Logan stops. "Nothing unusual about that," he rumbles under his breath then continues his search of the cabin. That's when the scent of blood hits him.

Without a moment's hesitation, he stomps over the rubble and ash inside and shoves open the door at the rear of the structure to see the woods behind. "This way," he says as he steps out onto the dusty earth. Not stopping, Logan's senses make sure Scott is hot on his trail as he makes his way into the trees in search of the source of the blood. He's walking with purpose but he's also on the prowl. He's hunting now. His sight, his hearing, and his smell are in full alert searching for Jean.

Cyclops has posed:
"She's not responding to me."

Scott takes a look around inside the cabin once the log drops to the ground in a clatter. There is a look of worry upon his face as he glances over towards Logan. "It appears that the Professor is leaving some details out from our conversations and updates of how the progress is going."

When it appears that Logan has caught a new scent, he turns and follows after him, brows lifting upwards. "What'd you find?" He calls out to him as he reaches into his pocket to take out his small foldable visor. He closes his eyes to remove his glasses, then attaches the visor as it wraps about his head. From here, all he can do is trust the Wolverine's instincts.

Phoenix has posed:
The trail leads outside the spreading ring of dying trees and into the forest proper. It doesn't go far, maybe a quarter of a mile at most to a slight rise in the elevation to form a natural overlook over the sun-washed mountains. It'd be hard to spot her at first sitting in a lower branch of an old sugar maple, with her wild, flame-hued hair blending with the eruption of autumn leaves and looking like she was just another branch in a sea of trees. Jean is leaning back against the trunk and looking out over the forest, though the initial serenity of the scene is broken by her appearance. She looks drawn and thin as if whatever internal fight was draining her as much as it was her surroundings. There's rips and burns in her clothes and her skin is smeared with soot. The whites of her eyes are reddened with strain or injury with the latter being the source of the blood trail. It looks like she made her way out here dealing with one hell of a nosebleed.

The pressure in Scott's head, increasing as he drew closer, lets up once they find her. There's a fleeting psychic impression of something bitter and resigned, but it's gone too fast to follow. The woman in question doesn't turn to look their way, but she says, "I wasn't expecting you guys for another hour, I was about to take a nap." Attempts at humor fall flat, but it's hard to convey when it sounds like your voice was blown out recently. She raises an arm to scrub a tattered sleeve across the film under her nose. "He wasn't going to just let me handle this on my own, but he's never been good at knowing when to stop and accept there are some things he can't control."

Wolverine has posed:
Logan doesn't tell Scott what he's caught. Blood is not a good answer to the man's question and the last thing he needs is for Scott to go into boy scout mode and shoot off into the woods before they know what they're dealing with. Instead, the man with the adamantium skeleton continues to stalk into the thicker woods, relieved that the smell of decaying flora and dust has been replaced with live trees. But there's that lingering haze of iron in the air from the blood.

Catching Jean's scent before they reach her, Logan slows his approach and wrinkles chisel across his forehead as he rounds the tree to see Jean resting against its trunk. "You know me, darlin'," he says in response to her attempt at humor with a hollow form of his own, "Had to pick up some more booze halfway here." While clearly a joke, the expression on Logan's face is one of concern. After seeing her condition, his features harden. She looks like she's been through hell out here. And all alone. He looks towards Scott, waiting for his teammate's reaction upon seeing Jean like this. "How you holdin' up?" he asks towards the red-head as he turns his attention back to her.

Cyclops has posed:
As he slows to a stop once they reach the clearing, Scott lets out a quick breath at the sight of her. There is a visible swallow in the back of his throat, his face filled with a number of emotions, that of which resemble worry and concern. "Jean." He breathes out to her in a raspy voice. "We would have came anyways, we should have came sooner. You shouldn't have to go through this alone."

He gives a glance around to study the surroundings for a brief moment before he turns back towards her and the sight of her bloody nose. Reaching into his pocket, he takes out a hankerchief that he always has stuffed in the back, holding out to her as he moves closer. His other hand reaches out to brush against her arm.

"We can stay here with you if you need us to. The school is fine and being taken care of. I can call Betsy and Hank and let them take command of the team while we're gone."

Phoenix has posed:
"A drink sounds awesome right now, even a warm beer." Jean murmurs as she shifts herself around on the branch she's perched on and then pushes herself off, slowing the short descent with a flicker of her own power so she can land easily. She gives Scott a weary smile as she takes up the handkerchief, and there's a gleam of amusement in bloodshot eyes because of course he would carry around something that old-fashioned.

"I'm pretty sure I feel like I look." She answers Logan sardonically but with little heart behind it. "There's nothing for you two to do here besides getting hurt and I can't let that happen. She's not exactly feeling social right now. She doesn't trust anyone right now and I guess I can't blame her." She. Her. No longer the impersonal, alien 'it'.

"She can't be a prisoner anymore. I have to let her out, I have to let her breathe. She's going mad and she's tearing me apart in the process. Maybe once she has freedom then I can talk her down, but I don't know what will happen and I can't have any of you here."

Wolverine has posed:
For once in his life, Logan didn't actually bring any booze with him. When he got the call from Charles to go check on Jean it was the last thing on his mind. Then again, he's not sure she should have any drinks in her current state. One drink would probably hit her pretty hard. Logan could sure as shit use a swig or fifteen though.

"You still look pretty damn good," he says, managing to soften his face into a half smile. It's good to see her despite her condition and it's even better to hear her. Making jokes even. When she starts referring to the other presence, his softness stiffens again. It's pretty clear to him, probably Scott too, that she's right about not being able to hold her in any longer. Looking around at the cabin and her weight loss and bloody nose is plenty evidence. He'll be damned if she's doing it alone, though. He knows Scott's not going to leave voluntarily either.

"All due respect, darlin', but bullshit. We ain't leavin' you here to do this alone." He trudges over to a rock and takes a seat on it, resting his forearms over his knees as he looks at her while Scott tends to her more closely. "Yer gonna have to toss my hairy ass upstate if you don't want me here." Problem is he knows she can. And hell, she might.

Cyclops has posed:
"And his ass is really hairy." Scott mutters as he folds his arms over his chest. "We're not leaving you, Jean. If the world is going to end, it may as well happen at your side so that you aren't alone." Or him. He doesn't want to be alone either. "And if you are going to talk to this .. thing in your head, you need to eat and be strong enough to stand up to it. We'll tell the Professor later."

With a heavy sigh, he runs his hands through his hair in thought. "So, now that we're here, you can catch us up on everything. I've missed you, Jean. The school is lonely without you in it and the students are getting antsy." He reaches out to curl his arm around her waist, leaning in to give her a hug. "So, I need some good news to send back."

Phoenix has posed:
"We're already upstate, Logan." Remarks Jean dryly before she glances skyward and then points out through the trees. "I can aim for the border though, it's that way." But she doesn't send him flying, which is all for the best because he'd likely make one hell of an impact crater and no moose deserves to have a Wolverine dropped on them at terminal velocity.

She loops one arm around Scott and leans into him to prop herself up. "The kids are always antsy, they'll be fine. They're tough. As much as we insist we're not teaching them to be soldiers, we still rub off on them. I take it Emma hasn't given herself an aneurysm yet." She lets out a quiet sigh as she rests her head on Scott's shoulder. "I don't want to wait much longer to tackle this, it's just going to get worse and then I'll be even more tired. I'm never going to be 'strong enough'. She's more than anything I've ever known. I don't even know how to talk to something that is nothing but instinct. She's intelligent but without boundaries. It's hard to explain, I don't even have words for it. She's.... wild. Free."

Wolverine has posed:
Jean's sense of humor being intact is somewhat of a relief to Logan, but everything else has the man worried. Years of supressing one's emotions has made him an expert at not showing it, but the two he's with know him well enough to know that he's concerned. Scott's comment about the hair situation on his backside draws a snort out of the man as he casts his feral gaze towards the man holding Jean up.

"He's right," Logan says, hating the sound of the words as they escape his throat. "Either of us would rather be here while you deal with this shit than anywhere else, so here we are." He watches the two of them carefully as he stuffs his hand into his jacket pocket and searches for a half-smoked cigar.

Cyclops has posed:
"Then aim it towards Saturn and fire her off that way. Can you even do that? Do you know what it wants?" Scott asks as he pulls her closer against him, sliding his hands around her from behind so that she can lean in against his chest. He props his chin on the top of her head, letting out a sigh.

"And you have a fighting chance with the two of us than by yourself. I'd rather go out in a blaze of glory instead of sitting at home watching TV and then not seeing it coming. It's not how I've lived my life up until now." He leans forward and presses a kiss to the side of her head. "You should get cleaned up though. You have a working shower at the cabin?"

Phoenix has posed:
"I don't want either of you going out in a blaze of anything!" Protests Jean. "Especially not by my hand. I couldn't live with myself if I hurt any of you, anymore than you-- ...could if you weren't here to try." She trails off in a sour resignation with just the hint of a frustrated noise in her throat. It's the recognition that there are three immovable objects standing there talking and no one is going to budge. "Look, just promise me if shit goes south, you two will get out. Okay? The others will need you."

She grimaces as the cabin is brought up. "There was, though it was just a camp kind of shower. I'll make due with a rag and the creek if I have to. I've probably looked worse. She's quiet right now after our last blow up, so I still have my window. I was going to try and rest before opening the floodgates."

Wolverine has posed:
Hearing the resignation in Jean's voice makes Logan feel better. The last thing he or either of the others needs is to stand here and argue at the risk of pissing off the 'wild' thing in Jean's head. His eyes remain locked on her as he flips open his zippo and sparks a flame, holding it up to the end of his cigar. Sucking a few puffs to get the cherry lit, he returns the lighter to his pocket and exhales a thick cloud above his head that quickly drifts away with the breeze.

"Promise," he says in his usual gruff voice with no actual intention of following through on it. He doesn't know much about whatever is inside Jean but he knows that he's survived a helluva lot of shit in his life so this can't be much worse. Course it can't. "Rest sounds like a good plan, darlin'," he says as he looks from Jean towards the direction of the cabin. The decaying plant life and the ash inside the structure still linger in the air. "I can whip you up a bed if you burned up the one inside. Can't guarantee it'll be comfortable. Hard to find good thread count out in the wild."

Cyclops has posed:
"We've slept on worse things when we were younger." Scott says as he gives a quick flash of a grin towards Logan, trying to inject some humor. His arms give her a tighter squeeze from behind as they settle on her hips, resting his cheek to the top of her head. "Let's head back and get you cleaned up, and maybe some rest. We'll just take this one day at a time and see what happens." He sure isn't making a promise to leave either. Just like Logan, he is stubborn and dedicated to the woman of his heart.

Giving a look around the area, he sighs softly to himself. "Maybe we can just get a hotel room nearby for a bit of comfort. If the end of the world is coming, we could at least have a real shower and a nicer bed before it hits. I don't see a point in having a sore neck." Letting her go, he closes his eyes and swaps his visor for his shades once more, tucking the foldable device into his pocket.

Phoenix has posed:
Now Jean does swing, giving Scott a punch in the chest. Given that she looks about ready to tip over there's little actual force behind it, but the point is still there. "Scott! A sore neck is not high on my priority list. I'm out here because I don't want to blow anything up. I am not going into town. /You/ can if the dirt bothers you." And now she teases him, an affectionate smirk on her face as she turns to start the slow walk back towards the cabin.

"Pretty sure most everything inside is toast, but you drove up, right? It wouldn't be the first time I've passed out in the back of a car. Maybe there's something left scavenging inside, I didn't look around. I just need a few hours. You can call the Professor, let him know what's going on. Ororo will want to know too. If She gives me till morning, great, but she may not. I'll give you as much warning as I can."